Bernie Briggs Cup: 1973 University Shield remembered

IT’S often said a significant event, something so special it transcends the ordinary, can create friendships that last forever. And that’s exactly what happened 52 years ago when a group of high school mates from Moree did something so out of the ordinary, their triumph against all odds is widely recognised as Moree’s greatest sporting [...]

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Picnic racing at Talmoi goes back 114 years

THE Talmoi Amateur Picnic Race Club stages round three of bush Racing’s Golden Triangle on Saturday, June 21, with six races scheduled, including the time-honoured 1400m Warren and Ruth Hunter Memorial Talmoi Cup and 1000m Helen Boland Memorial Talmoi Bracelet. Full fields are expected, after numbers at Moree and Mallawa picnics reached capacity levels. There [...]

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Dorothy Wiseman, 91, marks Mallawa off her bucket list

IN 1936, Mallawa Amateur Picnic Race Club president Charles Jardine, a former amateur Australian heavyweight boxing champion and Olympic Games representative turned western districts sheep grazier, won the opening race as an owner at Mallawa with Spear Loch. On Saturday, his 91-year-old daughter, Dorothy Wiseman, arrived unheralded at the Mallawa races to relive the memories [...]

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Mallawa picnic racing steeped in history

BEFORE Mallawa came along in 1930 and joined Talmoi and Moree picnic race clubs on bush racing’s Golden Triangle, meetings were held a short distance away at Spring Plain during the very early 1900s. There is also evidence of picnic racing at Bullarah as far back as 1915. But at Spring Plain, about 28 miles [...]

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Charlie Thompson to be remembered at graveside plaque unveiling

THE man most people knew as CWT will be remembered in a gathering at Moree Cemetery later this month to acknowledge a plaque on his gravesite. Charles William Thompson – ‘Charlie’ to many – passed away in 2017. He was an amazing man, who stumbled into Moree by accident in 1963. Charlie was heading north [...]

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Aboriginal Tracker Wall proudly unveiled at Moree Police Station

A project more than two years in the making was officially opened on Thursday, when NSW Police Force Deputy Commissioner Paul Pisanos and Moree local Fred Pegus Junior proudly unveiled the Moree Aboriginal Tracker Wall at Moree Police Station. The honour wall, alongside the front doors of Moree Police Station, recognises all Aboriginal trackers who [...]

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Stories of Our Town Edition Two available soon

THE second edition of Stories of our Town, chronicling the diverse and rich history of the Moree Plains, will be released soon. The local studies journal, a collaboration between Moree Plains Shire Council and Big Sky Libraries, has been compiled and edited by local studies and digitisation officer, Adam Mitchell, and will be available in [...]

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1927: Shearers’ cook died while trying to save his mate in Rowena Hotel fire

STEVE Francis staggered from the burning building, choking and coughing. The 48-year-old shearers’ cook saw dozens of people milling around, watching helplessly as the Rowena Hotel burned to the ground. There was nothing the onlookers could do to save the wooden building. Rowena, a small farming village about 25 miles south-east of Collarenebri in north-western [...]

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Moree Military Museum open Anzac Day afternoon

MOREE RSL Regional Military Museum will be open to the public on Anzac Day after commemorative marches and services are completed. Local RSL Sub-Branch president John Williams invites the public to drop by the museum and take a look at the hundreds of exhibits on display. “The museum will be open on Anzac Day in [...]

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A history of Moree’s big rain events down through the years

When arguments and debates arise about 21st century climate change, it seems nothing much has changed at all during the past 200 years – not across Moree’s black-soil plains, anyway. The devastating drought of 2018 and 2019, which affected most of eastern Australia, is regarded the worst in Australia’s history. Moree’s flood in 2012 was [...]

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